Tavern Talks
by Bert-Wrighty
Summary: Varric tells a story of Lyla Mahariel and her lover Leliana to Merrill in the hanged man. Set in the same 'verse as my other story (From the Dales to Denirim)


**_Author's note._**

_**I was meant to post this weeks ago but I got side-tracked with my main story. Just in case you didn't notice, this is set in the same universe as that one with Lyla Mahariel as the warden. For those that haven't read my other story then all you need to know about Lyla for this story is that she is a duel-wielding warrior who is Merrill's adopted sister that is Ashalle adopted both Lyla and Merrill. Oh and she romances Leliana.**_

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**THE HANGED MAN**

Merrill shivered as she entered the dirty tavern. She hated it here, she wasn't used to so many people in one place, and they were so loud! Wishing that Hawke was with her she stepped into the middle of the room looking for familiar faces. Varric and Isabella were sitting at a table in the corner laughing loudly, Merrill saw the amount of empty bottles on the table and knew that Isabella would be extremely drunk. Varric noticed her standing in the doorway and struggled to get up, waving at her as he did.

"Daisy! Come join us at the table, we were just having a few drinks and sharing stories, I'll get you that strawberry wine you love so much!" Varric was slurring quite heavily but Merrill didn't mind, she didn't think she had ever heard the dwarf not slurring. She walked towards the table and sat in the empty seat that her drunk friend had left. Isabella wrapped an arm around the little elf and smiled, Merrill could smell the rum on her breath and had to supress a gag.

"Kitten!" Isabella was slurring more than Varric but her voice was full of warmth. "It's so good to see you. And without Hawke as well! I thought you were joined at the hip. Or maybe I just like thinking of that image." She winked at Merrill causing a bright red flush to appear on her face. Varric quickly returned and placed the glass in front of the elf, he always looked after her, she was really glad that she had made such good friends.

"Varric." Merrill paused to take a sip of her drink, sighing contently at the taste. "Do you know any stories of the hero of Ferelden? I would love to hear about her."

"Daisy of course I do. I have stories about everyone. How about I tell you of the first time she met her bard? It's quite exciting believe me."

**LOTHERING**

It was a mid-summers day when the Darkspawn attacked the quiet village. They tore through the town like a hot knife through butter. Destroying everything it their path. Dead bodies tossed around like playthings by the massive ogres that accompanied the evil blight creatures. The town was burning and the farmland was destroyed, picked clean by looters before the darkspawn had arrived.

The only building that was left standing now was the massive chantry. The light from the burning buildings and from the sun lit it up magnificently and if anyone passing by was not distracted by the hordes of darkspawn they would have been amazed at its beauty.

Inside the Chantry was a lone survivor. A redheaded Chantry sister. She had a bow and arrow in her hand and before her lay dozens of dead Darkspawn. She was singing wildly to herself as she nocked another arrow and without even taking the time to aim let it fly, straight into the middle of a Hurlocks face. She sang louder as she killed any darkspawn entering the Chantry building. She was the makers bow, she was the Maker's vengeance. She would kill all the darkspawn that dared enter her place of worship.

At the outskirts of the village approached two Grey Wardens. A human and an elf. The human was whimpering in her shining armour, the tears from his face splashing down upon his chest piece and tarnishing its shine, he looked down and prayed to the Maker for it all to be over. The elf looked at him and laughed. She was much smaller than the man and looking at her she didn't look at all dangerous. She wore her red hair into a simple braid as was the Dalish fashion and her facial tattoos told a story of vengeance and fury. She wore traditional ironwood armour and knelt down to her fellow Warden.

"**SHEMLEN"** She screamed at him. "**GET YOUR SORRY ARSE OFF THE FLOOR AND HELP ME KILL DARKSPAWN."** The man flinched as she shouted at him and fell to the floor. She sighed and decided to just mount her horse and carry on without him.

**THE HANGED MAN.**

"A horse? Make it a griffon Varric. Please!" Merrill pleaded with the dwarf.

"That's a little tricky Daisy. Griffons are extinct." Varric smiled to himself though, he knew no matter what he said and no matter how much he protested that a griffon would be in the story now.

"Oh. But can't a griffon swoop in and save the day? Please!" She pleaded with the dwarf, Isabella would have laughed at the look on his face if she hadn't fallen asleep in her rum.

"Swooping is bad daisy. You win though. I'll make it a griffon. I take it you want me to call it 'Feathers'?" Merrill nodded excitedly and took another sip of her wine.

**LOTHERING**

Lyla petted her griffon. She loved how fluffy the majestic creature was. The silvery-grey feathers shone perfectly in the summer sun.

"Oh Feathers, what are we going to do about this stupid shemlen?" She whispered to the griffon which responded in a sound not unlike laughter. She jumped and effortlessly front flipped into a seated position behind the animal's wings.

Feathers cawed then took off in flight, he flew around the battlefield and Lyla took her bow and was shooting easily at the darkspawn below. Finally, after what seemed to be an age or two, she saw a monster worth killing, an ogre. As she nocked an arrow she told Feathers to fly higher, she needed a real challenge now, she took a deep breath, drew and let the arrow fly. Time seemed to slow down as Lyla watched her arrow go, it span slowly in the air and picked up more speed as it fell, finding its intended target the eye of an ogre. She laughed wildly as it fell to the floor dead.

"You will all die by my arrows!" She cackled. "Feathers bring me closer. There are more darkspawn to destroy." Kicking the griffon it dove down and she brought her bow up nocking an arrow as she did. She spied the figure of a hurlock below and as quickly as she saw it she released an arrow, piercing the creature's neck. The screams of the dying darkspawn below her and Feathers was drowned out by the shrieks of the griffon and the joyous laughter of the elven Warden.

She commanded the majestic creature to land, she had grown bored of picking off the monsters from above, it was time for a real challenge. As feathers came close to the floor she dived off his back, drawing her sword and axe as she did so, forcing the blade of her sword through the chest of an unfortunate genlock who was in her landing spot, she rolled into a crouched position and looked around her.

A growl left her lips as she saw the devastation of the small village up close. From the skies the burning town had almost looked beautiful but down here, bombarded by the smells of death and burning flesh she could no longer believe it. Once she would have been glad to see a shemlen village burn to the ground but this was different, this was a perversion of the natural things. The enemy of my enemy is my friend and whilst Lyla viewed humans as enemies they were nothing compared to the horrors of the darkspawn. She vowed to Elgar'nan that she would get vengeance for all the victims of this blight before it was over. A series of grunts pulled her back to reality as a wave of darkspawn approached the dangerous little elf.

She rose from her knees and swore an elven curse at the darkspawn approaching, she wasn't scared, she had faced much worse odds that this before and come out unscathed, if anything the creatures approaching should be scared of her but like everything else in this world they were not scared of a little female elf. She watched as they encircled her before she pounced, what advantage the strength of the darkspawn may have provided was lost almost immediately, it didn't matter how strong a man was if he couldn't hit his target. She danced around the many monsters hacking and slashing at them as she did so, she let an elven song burst from her lips as she span, killing these monstrosities always put her in the best of moods and why not celebrate with a song. Her axe found the neck of the last genlock and it fell, leaving behind its head for a moment before that too fell to the floor, when she heard a feminine scream erupt from the accursed chantry building before her. As much as she was hoping not to have to enter that horrible building, too much bad blood between that church and her people, she would not abandon any would-be survivors, she had sworn it.

"Andruil guide me. Mythal protect me." She chanted as she ran to the building, hoping beyond hope that whoever is in there is safe. "Dread wolf take these disgusting monsters."

As she entered the exquisite building she stopped dead. The most beautiful woman the elf had ever seen stood near the back of the chantry, leaning against the pews, with a horde of dead darkspawn around her feet. Lyla could have stayed there, watching the gorgeous woman, all day but a roar from an ogre brought her crashing back to reality. Whilst this woman and her bow may have saved her from the smaller darkspawn, the ogre that had broken into the building just before the elf was too much even for the chantry sister.

"Halem sahlin." The elf roared as she ran towards the towering creature. "Ar tu na'lin emma mi. You will not take her!" She jumped at the behemoth before her and brought her sword forward, gripping it with both hands. It stuck in the back of the monster and she held on for dear life. The ogre screamed and swatted its large arms back at the pain it felt between its shoulder blades but unfortunately for the blighted monster it could not reach. With a grunt and another elven curse Lyla brought herself up onto the blade and launched herself up onto the creatures horned head, she once again drew her trusty axe and brought it down with force into the ogre's skull, splitting it almost in to between its eyes. The monster took an uneasy step before falling before the chantry sister.

Lyla effortlessly stepped off the huge monster and smiled up at the beautiful woman before her. "Aneth ara lethallan. I am Lyla Mahariel of the Grey Wardens, who might you be my lady?"

"Leliana." Leliana was entranced, this amazing tempest of a woman flew through the chantry and destroyed that monster without even trying and to top all of that raw power and skill off she was beautiful. She had always found elves attractive but this one was more so, the exotic tattoos on her face sang a song to Leliana, a song of love, protection and vengeance. "You must be my knight in shining armour. It's customary to reward such deeds with a kiss no? Come here my gorgeous little elf."

**THE HANGED MAN**

"Varric!" Merrill whispered in a stern voice. "That's my sister! I don't want to hear about that sort of thing!"

"Sorry daisy, I forgot I wasn't speaking to Rivaini here." He motioned to the sleeping pirate beside him. "If she's your sister why did you want me to tell you a story about her? Surely you have more of them than me?"

"Well yes but you tell them much better than me." She stammered around the rim of the mug of wine. "Would you like to hear one then? I only have stories from when we were children though." She smiled to herself as one particular memory struck her. "I could tell you about when Lyla and I tried to steal a halla and run away?" When the charismatic dwarf smiled at her to continue she began.

"I'll try to tell it like you Varric." She adopted a lower voice, trying to impersonate the dwarf before her.

"No shit there I was…"

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**Author's note**

**This is currently a one-shot story but as I have left a bit of a cliff-hanger at the end here I am hoping to update it sometime in the future but I have no idea if or when that will be. **

**Translations**

**Halem sahlin – This ends now.**

**Ar tu na'lin emma mi – I will see your blood on my blade.**


End file.
